Drilling and Blasting

To reach the tin ore miners had to drill holes and use explosives to break the rock underground.

Drilling holes in the hard Cornish rock was time consuming and hard work. Early miners drilled holes by hand and used gunpowder to blast the rock apart. Modern miners at Geevor used compressed air drills and gelatin to break the rock underground.

Photograph reproduced with the kind permission of Chirs Elson held by the Geevor Archivel

Early Methods for Breaking Rock Underground

In order to extract the tin ore, the hard rock had to be broken.

Geevor is a 20th century mine so how can this be true : By 1880 mechanical drilling machines were first being used at Geevor.

Comment left by GEEVOR TIN MINE on 2009-11-11 11:33:34

Thank you for your comments, we have now amended the entry.

Comment left by Leif Nielsen on 2011-05-27 22:08:57

A very interesting museum, which we visited during a holiday i United Kingdom in May 2011.

Comment left by Leviticus Bennett on 2017-04-25 22:35:10

That's really neat that nowadays we can use compressed air drills and gelatin to break rock underground. I've heard there was a lot of deaths and accidents caused by gunpowder explosives used in mining. Some people even say it used to be one of the most dangerous jobs. It's a good thing technology fixed that.
That's really neat that nowadays we can use compressed air drills and gelatin to break rock underground. I've heard there was a lot of deaths and accidents caused by gunpowder explosives used in mining. Some people even say it used to be one of the most dangerous jobs. It's a good thing technology fixed that.